Bhubaneswar: Odisha government will felicitate Indian men’s hockey team in Bhubaneswar August 16 for winning bronze medal at Tokyo Olympics, a tweet of state I&PR department said Thursday.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik spoke to the team members earlier in the day over video conference and congratulated them for their spectacular achievement.
Later, taking to his personal Twitter handle, Patnaik wrote “Many congratulations to our hockey team. The whole of India is so excited as well as Odisha of course. We are all behind you and we wish you the very best and we are looking forward to receiving our Indian Olympics hockey team in Bhubaneswar August 16, 2021.”
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It is pertinent to mention, the men’s hockey team made it to the semi-finals after 41 years, but lost to Belgium. In a high-intensity match in the morning, the Indian team fought brilliantly from a two-goal deficit to beat Germany 5:4 for winning the bronze medal at Olympics.
The state government had earlier signed a Rs 150 crore memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hockey India in 2018 to sponsor the men’s and women’s national hockey teams over a period of 5 years.
PNN